Covid-19 Notice under Regulation 3 (4) of the Health Service Control of Patient Information Regulations 2002

The health and social care system is taking action to manage and mitigate the spread and impact of the current outbreak of Covid-19. This will involve you as a GP Practice to process and share confidential patient information amongst health organisations and other bodies engaged in disease surveillance for the purposes of research, protecting public health, providing healthcare services to the public and monitoring and managing the Covid-19 outbreak and incident exposure.

The notice (dated 20th March 2020) from the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care gives you the legal basis to process and share your patients confidential information when required for the purposes of Covid-19 only. The current notice received only applies until 30th September 2020, where this will be reviewed.

GDPR – Article 9 processing is necessary for reasons of public interest in the area of public health, such as protecting against serious cross-border threats to health or ensuring high standards of quality and safety of health care and of medicinal products or medical devices.